The leading global digital infrastructure provider Tata Communications and Cisco have extended their partnership to enable enterprises to transform their legacy network to a customised and secure multi-cloud native hybrid network. The combination of Tata Communications’ IZO™ cloud enablement platform and Cisco SD-WAN is a fully-managed, global solution that gives businesses greater control over their digital infrastructure, the ability to securely connect any user to any application location, and provide the assurance of application performance needed to support successful digital transformation.

The new offering brings together the expertise of two Gartner Magic Quadrant Leaders. Tata Communications has been positioned in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Services, Global1. Cisco has been positioned in the Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure2.

Tata Communications’ cloud and hybrid networking capabilities are underpinned by the company’s global tier-1 Internet backbone and partnerships with major cloud providers, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Alibaba. This means that through IZO™ SDWAN powered by Cisco, enterprises are now able to offer their employees a secure and reliable user experience for and with cloud-based applications and on premise applications seamlessly in more than 150 countries worldwide.

Cisco’s SD-WAN solution plays a pivotal role in the Cisco Digital Network Architecture (DNA) for enterprises transitioning to become digital natives and in multi-cloud adoption. With Cisco’s DNA, enterprises are able to centrally secure user, device and application policies across wired, wireless and wide area network. Cisco’s DNA is the central keystone in assisting organisations with securely managing multi-cloud and multi-domain environments, making it easier for enterprises to accelerate their digital transformation journey.

“We want our customers to be able to harness the power of the Internet and the cloud to transform how they operate, but without jeopardising security or performance,” said Song Toh, Vice President, Global Network Services, Tata Communications. “With our new SDWAN solution powered by Cisco, we offer a fully managed hybrid network service that’s fit for your digital business. It’s a resilient cloud-ready network-as-a-service which can grow and scale as needed, while ensuring predictable and secure access to data and applications. It’s designed to give businesses agility and reduce the complexity of network transformation.”

Tata Communications has several years of experience in deploying large-scale enterprise SD-WAN solutions across thousands locations. This - combined with its global presence and its ability to design, migrate and manage SD-WANs round-the-clock - lowers the barriers for enterprises to move from a legacy infrastructure to a hybrid software-defined network.

“We are excited to partner with Tata Communications on our Cisco SD-WAN platform, which is a critical building block of our multi-cloud, multi-domain architecture,” said Vish Iyer, Vice President, Architectures APJC, Cisco. “Cisco SD-WAN is the point of intelligence in application-aware networking for multi-cloud adopted businesses. It can direct each application to the most appropriate transport to use in real-time and that application is free to reside in any cloud or on-premise location. This cloud-native architecture allows organisations to seamlessly transition and adopt cloud-hosted and assisted infrastructure to ultimately allow businesses to accelerate their transformation and innovation agenda.”

This new joint SDWAN offering builds on Tata Communications’ long-standing partnership with Cisco. The company is a globally certified Master Service Provider in Cisco’s Cloud & Managed Services Program. This means that Tata Communications integrates its own network, cloud, hosting, security and voice services as part of Cisco’s solutions and serves customers globally with this integrated, fully-managed offering to address their diverse business and technology needs.

“Enterprises want SD-WAN’s many practical features to have a predictable and secure cloud applications experience, but they often run into unexpected challenges,” said Brian Washburn, Practice Leader, Network Transformation & Cloud, Ovum. “Ovum recommends enterprises partner with an expert service provider to help with their network transformation. Tata Communications IZO™ SDWAN with Cisco now offers enterprises a fully integrated, managed SD WAN solution to help with the transition.”

Tata Communications’ software-defined networking experience includes the deployment and management of networks for customers across 3,000+ sites globally. One of the company’s customers is Carlsberg. As the growing use of cloud-based applications has led to 70% of Carlsberg’s network traffic being on the Internet, the software-defined hybrid IZO™ network by Tata Communications has given the brewer 10 times more bandwidth, reduced costs by 25%, and halved the occurrence of network incidents.

The company’s customers represent 300 of the Fortune 500 whose digital transformation journeys are enabled by its portfolio of integrated, globally managed services that deliver local customer experiences. Through its network, cloud, mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), collaboration and security services, Tata Communications carries around 30% of the world’s internet routes and connects businesses to 60% of the world’s cloud giants and 4 out of 5 mobile subscribers.

The company’s capabilities are underpinned by its global network, which is the world’s largest wholly owned subsea fibre backbone and a Tier-1 IP network.

Tata Communications Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India, and it serves customers in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide through its technology capabilities and partnerships.

Forward-looking and cautionary statementsCertain words and statements in this release concerning Tata Communications and its prospects, and other statements, including those relating to Tata Communications’ expected financial position, business strategy, the future development of Tata Communications’ operations, and the general economy in India, are forward-looking statements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including financial, regulatory and environmental, as well as those relating to industry growth and trend projections, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Tata Communications, or industry results, to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include, among others, failure to increase the volume of traffic on Tata Communications’ network; failure to develop new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; failure to successfully complete commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services, including voice transmission services; failure to stabilize or reduce the rate of price compression on certain of the company’s communications services; failure to integrate strategic acquisitions and changes in government policies or regulations of India and, in particular, changes relating to the administration of Tata Communications’ industry; and, in general, the economic, business and credit conditions in India. Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, many of which are not in Tata Communications’ control, include, but are not limited to, those risk factors discussed in Tata Communications Limited’s Annual Reports. The Annual Reports of Tata Communications Limited are available at www.tatacommunications.com. Tata Communications is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements.

2 “Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure” by Joe Skorupa, Andrew Lerner, Christian Canales, Mike Toussaint, October 18th, 2018 (Cisco positioned as a Leader) Gartner disclaimer: Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.